A CONSERVATIVE MP yesterday apologised for any offence he caused by seeming to compare criticism of politicians’ expenses to the nazis’ persecution of Jews.

But David Wilshire defiantly chose to explain than withdraw his remarks, despite an order by David Cameron.

The politician said he stood by the fears he had expressed “however clumsily” about the impact of the MPs’ expenses scandal.

Last month, Mr Wilshire announced that he would step down at the next election after it emerged he had paid more than £105,000 of taxpayers’ money into a company he set up with his girlfriend.

His statement last night followed a day of pressure by the Tory leadership to apologise for his nazi jibe.

Earlier, Mr Cameron had said Mr Wilshire should withdraw his “frankly ludicrous” comments.

The Community Security Trust, which monitors anti-semitism, said Mr Wilshire’s comment was inane and added: “It would be grossly offensive if it were not so stupid.”

In a statement last night, Mr Wilshire admitted he had referred to the Holocaust in response to “very unpleasant emails from about half a dozen people”.

But he insisted: “I was not seeking to equate what is happening to MPs with the Holocaust. I was warning that history teaches that the sentiments expressed in such emails can lead to horrendous consequences.

He said the emailers had assumed a newspaper’s “untested allegations were proof of guilt” and their suggestions had included that he should be “strung up from a lamp post, that the sender was coming to shoot me and that most MPs were corrupt and ought to be disposed of”.

Mr Wilshire had continued: “The witch-hunt against MPs will under- mine democracy and weaken Parliament, handing yet more power to governments.”

Then he added: “Branding a whole group of people undesirables led to Hitler’s gas chambers.”

The MP’s statement last night concluded: “I continue to believe that the anxieties I raised in my email need to be taken very seriously, however clumsily I might have expressed them in the first place.”

Last month, Mr Wilshire provoked outrage by claiming his £64,000-a-year salary came “dangerously close to the minimum wage” when his workload was taken into account.

Gordon Brown yesterday met the man tasked with reforming MPs’ expenses amid speculation that politicians are ready to defy public fury by watering down his recommendations.

Sir Christopher Kelly’s Committee on Standards in Public Life is due to publish its report tomorrow.

It is expected to recommend big cuts in allowances, including banning MPs from claiming for mortgagerepayments,and stop them employing members of their families.

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